Wine Pour Geek

In an effort to stave off financial ruin (yeah, right) I have taken a part time job at Cata Vinos wine shop here in Tucson. My primary role is to host wine tastings at private parties, although occasionally I'll be in the shop helping Yvonne with public tastings. The best part, besides doing something really fun for money, is that I'll get to try tons of great wine for free.

I am now officially a wine pour geek.

Spiritual Realism

I’ve been working toward something in my paintings, something powerful. Until now I’ve dabbled using a variety of approaches, some more successful than others. Overall the paintings I like best have made use of realistic colors and simplified, realistic formal elements. This isn’t about reproducing a perfected scene from nature. This is about taking only those elements that are essential and reproducing them with full attention and power. The colors must be realistic. The formal aspects must be rendered with integrity. But the arrangements and geometries are intentionally simplified, reducing the image to its essence. Extraneous distractions are removed or pushed into mystery. The full range of light and shadow is employed, also in the service of essential truth and mystery. I call this approach “Spiritual Realism” and I believe it sums up my intentions toward painting, writing, and life in general.

I am a Spiritual Realist painter and writer (and for that matter, a cook). That is what I am here to do.

Whether this will matter to anyone is open to debate. Looking around me, I see a world largely rudderless and bereft of spiritual depth. I see people flailing, trying to fill themselves up. Can a simple artist point the way? Does anyone even care? Are we satisfied with our consumerism, our retreat into banality?

Or are we hungry?

I am reminded of Jackson Browne's amazing song "Looking East" and his very succinct way of describing our shared plight:

Looking East

Standing in the ocean with the sun burning low in the west
Like a fire in the cavernous darkness at the heart of the beast
With my beliefs and possessions, stopped at the frontier in my chest
At the edge of my country, my back to the sea, looking east

Where the search for the truth is conducted with a wink and a nod
And where power and position are equated with the grace of God
These times are famine for the soul while for the senses it's a feast
From the edge of my country, as far as you see, looking east

Hunger in the midnight, hunger at the stroke of noon
Hunger in the mansion, hunger in the rented room
Hunger on the TV, hunger on the printed page
And there's a God-sized hunger underneath the laughing and the rage
In the absence of light
And the deepening night
Where I wait for the sun
Looking east

How long have I left my mind to the powers that be?
How long will it take to find the higher power moving in me?

Power in the insect
Power in the sea
Power in the snow falling silently
Power in the blossom
Power in the stone
Power in the song being sung alone
Power in the wheat field
Power in the rain
Power in the sunlight and the hurricane
Power in the silence
Power in the flame
Power in the sound of the lover's name
The power of the sunrise and the power of a prayer released
On the edge of my country, I pray for the ones with the least

Hunger in the midnight, hunger at the stroke of noon
Hunger in the banquet, hunger in the bride and groom
Hunger on the TV, hunger on the printed page
And there's a God-sized hunger underneath the questions of the age
And an absence of light
In the deepening night
Where I wait for the sun
Looking east

-----

I couldn't put it any better. Thanks again, Jackson, for summing it up.

70,000 words

I'm 1,500 words into my novel. Only about 68,500 words to go. Should take about a year, if I'm lucky.

McManis Family Vineyards Favorite Reds Taste-off 2006

Ever since the stunning McManis Petite Sirah 2004, I’ve come to look forward to the next vintage of red wines by this modest California winery. So, when they announced their 2006 vintage, including a brand new award-winning Pinot Noir, I became excited about the possibility of another great vintage. The 2005 vintage was all-around decent, though not as great as the previous one (with the possible exception of the 2005 Syrah). For this review I’ll give my impressions of the 2006 Cabernet, the 2006 Petite Sirah, and the new 2006 Pinot Noir (the 2006 Syrah will have to wait).

The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon by McManis Family Vineyards is bright ruby red in the glass with fairly modest extraction for this varietal. The nose is expressive with red currants and floral notes accompanied by cedar and asphalt. In the mouth the wine is sappy and slightly watery with good acidity and a slightly fake fruity quality. Berries and red currants predominate, with a hind of tangerine and light vanilla. Very modest tannin and alcohol. A simple, flavorful wine, but not nearly as good as the prior two vintages. I’ve come to expect more from McManis and I’m unimpressed with this wine, although it is still quite enjoyable, and still better than f*cking Yellowtail. I won't buy it again.

My score: 82

The 2006 Pinot Noir (!) by McManis Family Vineyards is medium garnet in the glass with fairly decent extraction. The nose is very expressive, almost explosive, with penetrating blueberry and spicey black cherry notes. In the mouth the wine is very fruity and sappy, bordering on overdone, with hints of cherry cola, black cherries and cranberry-orange marmalade. Tannin is non-existent and the finish, while short, is wrapped around a core of creamy, oaky vanilla. Low alcohol and decent acidity save this wine from its fruity-ass self. A simple, flavorful wine that flirts with becoming a gagger. I think they can do better, but this one ain’t bad, if you like koolaid. I won't buy it again.

My score: 83

The 2006 Petite Sirah by McManis Family Vineyards is dark purple in the glass with good extraction. The nose is fairly closed at this point, revealing dark berry fruit and some floral notes, along with just a hint of bacon. In the mouth the wine is modestly tannic with a lovely loamy-blueberry aspect on the midpalate. Very nice, medium-bodied fruit, not overdone, with light vanilla on the finish. Better than the 2005, but not quite like the 2004. Perhaps this one will evolve, and if it does I expect it to be quite wonderful, maybe in about six months.

My score: 85

Overall I’d say that the 2006 vintage must have been a hot one. They probably over-watered their vines in order to deal with the heat, resulting in sweet, generic-tasting fruit with little structure or concentration. The only good thing is that sometimes (as in the case of the Pinot) you get wonderful, hedonistic flavors like cherry cola or citrus mixed in with the usual berry notes. The downside is that you also get a lot of fake-tasting, sappy qualities and a certain hollow aspect to the midpalate. An earlier harvest might have prevented some of this, but McManis isn’t in the business of restraining their wines, and this time they got themselves into trouble.

The Petite Sirah is a bit of a mystery. I can only assume that it is still a little closed. It also seems to be the best of the three, perhaps due to harvesting variations or the peculiarities of the varietal. I will buy more of this in a few months to see where it is going. I expect good things once it opens up and settles in.

Better luck next year, McManis.

An Inspired Life

It is easy, when faced with the perverse challenges of raising children with no money and few prospects, to begin to doubt everything that I am doing. Maybe if I hadn't done this or that thing, of maybe if we lived in another town, or maybe if I hadn't married you, or maybe if we only had one child, or maybe if...

This fear is bottomless, unending, and undeniable. It pervades every aspect of our lives. It paints itself with dollar signs. It smells of dental work and prepackaged food. It gathers dust in the corner, then spills over onto the floor, where we trip over it, cursing.

An inspired life is one that draws its strength from Spirit. In-Spiration. But so often we question a meaning greater than ourselves. So often we think that, if only we could just rework the numbers, maybe we'd get ahead.

But ahead of what? Our consumption patterns? Our debts? What are we trying to get ahead of? Each other? Our own physical destruction?

No. Enough of this getting ahead. Therein lies true madness. Therein lies the death that calls itself a life and raises two dead children, beholden to the tax collector and to the rapacious monstrosity that is this cancer-culture, this self-devouring miasm of greed and unsustainability, soul-less, without Spirit.

If we lose the Spirit, we're already dead, and the Spirit, however we may define it, is not a function of our rational, egoic mind.

That is why I paint. That is why I write. I do these things because they sustain my Spirit. I do these things in the hope that others might likewise be inspired. Hey, if Tyler can do it, then maybe I can, too. Maybe I can stop fearing. Maybe I can learn to breathe again.

I have felt the consequences of fear-based decisions. I will make choices based on courage, not fear. I will seek the inspiration in all that I do. I will not give in to the soul-less world. I will accept what comes, knowing that, in the end, I lived deep down in my soul, in my heart, in these fragile, breakable bones.

And I will teach my children to do the same.